Weekender pulley attachment to boom

[agnewhewes]

I am having trouble determining how the boom pulleys for the main sheet are attached to the boom.  I have  a solid wood boom as in the plans.  Thanks for any advice.  Hewes

[Frank Hagan]

There are a couple of ways to do it.  I think most of us just used either a eye bolt that extends completely through the boom, or u-bolts, with the threaded portion going all the way through the boom and secured with washers and lockwashers and nuts on top.

I have a little bit different set up because I have a tiller rather than a wheel, but you can see the u-bolts that go through the boom in this picture:

If you have the standard rigging set up with the wheel, you'll only have one block at the aft end of the boom as shown on page 35, and then one 52" from the aft end as shown on page 32 in the plans.  Both can be attached with eye bolts or long u-bolts like I have.  There's a fair amount of stress on these, so you don't want to use a screw type eye bolt that just screws into the wood ... you should through-bolt it.

[agnewhewes]

Thanks Frank.  I have enjoyed reading many of your messages through this project, and appreciate the help.  Hewes Agnew